Nokia Re-Enters the US Market with Windows Phone

At a 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) press conference on Monday, struggling cell phone giant Nokia officially announced its return to the US smartphone market with two Lumia models based on Windows Phone. The news further corroboratesan exclusive report I published previously to the SuperSite for Windows in late December.

"Today I am very pleased to introduce the third device in the Lumia portfolio, the Lumia 900," Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said during the press conference. "With Lumia, our intent has been to establish beachheads. That is what we're now doing. Across our portfolio, Lumia is aimed at the heart of our strategy."

Nokia's press conference concerned just this one handset, which was previously code-named ACE and is exclusive to AT&T. (Nokia previously revealed that its Lumia 710 would be sold by T-Mobile starting January 11.) The Lumia 900 is essentially a modified version of the Lumia 800 that Nokia is already selling in Europe; key differentiators include 4G/LTE capabilities, a 4.3" screen, a front-facing camera, and a high-quality rear-facing camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

Nokia didn't talk much about its marketing plans, even in response to a direct question, but the internal memo I've seen says that Nokia and Microsoft will spend over $130 million pushing the Lumia 900 to AT&T customers during the first half of 2012 alone.

Nokia also wouldn't say when the Lumia 900 would be available to customers, with Elop noting that the company expected sales to begin "in the months just ahead." The documentation I've viewed says that the Lumia 900 will be generally available in March.

The Lumia 900 looks solid. I intend to review this device, you know, "in the months just ahead."